The Trap Door Beneath His Throne

At this point the title ‘president’ seems so inadequate. Something grander and more glorious and imperial is needed. For want of any better idea, I’ve decided to use “The Great And Wonderful Ozbama.”

After all, just four months into his reign, he has waved his wizard’s wand over just about every aspect of American commerce, law and society. He’s taken over entire corporations, dictating to them everything from the firing and hiring of CEO’s to the make-up of their corporate boards – even to their ad budgets. State’s rights are antiquated, as Governor Schwarzenegger is discovering. The rule of law is now subordinate to His rule, as Chrysler bondholders and bankruptcy court judges are discovering.

And those are just previews of far more pervasive takeovers and acute disregard for individuals’ rights to come. It’s the price to be paid for the “progressive” agenda of the Ozbama.

There is, however, a trap door beneath his throne. The floor on which he poses may seem solid to him now. But …

The unemployment statistics reported daily in mainstream media fail to tell the whole story. In fact, they conceal the most important parts of it. Some states are already in double digits, at 10 percent, 12 percent and climbing. But how does a 31 percent number strike you? According to Harper’s Index in Harper’s Magazine, as of March 2009, the percentage of men over 20 years of age who are unemployed is 31 percent. Chances that an American who has been unemployed since December of 2007 is a man: 4 in 5.

As politically incorrect as it may be to say it, these stats suggest that the unemployment rate among primary breadwinners and family leaders is much higher than the 8 percent or 9 percent general number, and that means that the cancerous, insidious weakness of this economy is already much farther advanced and of more dangerous extreme than understood by most politicians, financial pundits, or media commentators.

We are nearer a breaking point than most might imagine. I do not know what that breaking point number is; a third of men and a fifth of primary breadwinners long unemployed? Half the men and a quarter of primary breadwinners? Even worse? At some point, they – the masses of unemployed – will pull the switch that springs open the hidden trap door beneath the Ozbama’s throne.

Everything the Ozbama is doing to re-craft America in His vision is worsening this unemployment number – not, as He claims, helping it. That’s because everything He is doing is inspiring a flight of investment capital, and destroying small business. The takeover of GM and Chrysler at the expense of well over 1,000 dealerships and of bondholders and lenders who had paid for first position security now stripped from them destroys more jobs than preserving the shrunken manufacturers saves. It also warns investors and lenders to avoid putting a penny of new money into anything He might decide to dictate to or confiscate as His own at any time in the future.

This is the pattern of His every act: save one job by destroying ten; spend a government printed dollar in a way that scares ten private dollars into hiding. For a time, His frenetic pace can conceal the destruction. For a time, He can bully frightened business leaders with his threats, demonizing and disregard for law, for a time He can buffalo the oh-so-compliant media with daily grand pronouncements and legerdemain. But He cannot stop the reality of primary breadwinner unemployment climbing; His own actions and mandates guarantee it.

At that breaking point, He will suddenly find the trap door opened beneath His feet. His poll numbers will plummet, His adoring fans will go silent, His media sycophants morph to critics, even His own party will desert him. His presidency will be impotent, His dictatorial takeover stalled and stymied.

This, ironically and sadly, is the hope we must believe in.

Dan Kennedy is a serial entrepreneur, adviser to business owners, sought-after speaker and author of 13 books. More information about Dan can be found at www.NoBSBooks.com, and a free collection of his business resources including newsletters and webinars at www.DanKennedy.com.

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